Orthorectification of 1960s satellite photographs covering Greenland

This article presents a rigorous, high-precision model for geometric orthorectification of declassified intelligence satellite photography (DISP) imagery for the generation of a seamless, full-coverage mosaic of the Greenland ice sheet. This model integrates the bundle adjustment method and satellite orbital parameters, solving for interior orientation (including lens distortion) and exterior orientation parameters simultaneously. In addition, the techniques of adaptive filtering, bright-strip removal, radiometric balancing, and mosaic postprocessing are discussed. Two full-coverage mosaics of Greenland using 24 DISP images from eight orbits of the ARGON 9034A Mission of May 1962 and 36 images from 14 orbits of the 9058A/59A mission of October 1963 were created. The average planimetric accuracy (relative to the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mosaic) is about 168 m from statistical measurements of 182 points in topographically flat areas and 186 m from statistical measurements of 201 points in mountainous areas. The two mosaic products have been delivered to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) for use by the research community.

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